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As the Gulch Turns - CRT for sale (again)

To be fair to Tommy, the value of CRT has wildly depreciated in the two years since he handed over the reigns to the current regime. Actually, even more importantly, the website's classification has changed, so the product Tommy would be buying back wouldn't even be the product he sold. Whereas Tommy sold Bill a Costa Rica monger community site, Bill would be selling back a hotel marketing site for Barrio Amon.

So how did something with such a high sticker price become almost worthless in such a short amount of time? Well, there are several factors at play.

First, Tommy's advantage over me and this site, besides an 8 year head start, was that he lived in Miami, not Costa Rica. I actually thought this would be my advantage over him, but his residence in Miami gave him a neutral position I never had. I was the guy Jimmy or Jeff could call and bitch at because someone wrote a bad review of his place. I couldn't tell you how many arguments I've had with local business owners over not removing an unflattering review. They knew me, they had my local number. So they were comfortable calling me whenever someone wrote something they didn't like. Tommy was the guy in Miami, over there. Someone they hardly ever saw, therefore didn't feel comfortable bitching at him.

Second, horrible management. How do you fuck up a website that was largely effortless so efficiently? You put someone in charge that everyone hates. Yep, Damaged Dan was given the keys to CRT. If you don't know Dan Woodall, you're probably fortunate. Dan is the most efficient anti-social person I've ever met. By the time Bill put him in charge of CRT, he'd managed to piss off or annoy everyone he'd ever met in Costa Rica, including Bill. My guess is that Dan was that kid on the playground that never had any lunch money. Mistreated by those around him because of his manner, and suddenly the teacher made him a hall monitor. Most of you know the type. When Dan was given the keys to CRT, all those people that had offended him were now going to pay for his perceived harms. Largely, he was just ignored, made to feel irrelevant. Now he was going to show them how much he mattered. And thus, a mass banning expedition began. Much like Stalin's relocation programs.

Third, Relevance. CRT isn't a monger site any more. At it's height, it had become a gathering place for a very large mongering community. Now that the site's focus was shifted to selling hotel rooms at Sportsman's Lodge, the guys who gathered there stopped gathering there. Also, the Medellin secret got out, and many guys who visited were telling their pals from Costa Rica about it.

Fourth, Competition. For many years, CRT managed to hold the Costa Rica market alone and never had to compete. With some local businesses participating, CRT became a default online forum to gather information about Costa Rica, and catch up with friends between trips. While I'd like to take some credit for pulling a chunk of their market share away from them, I'd have to be honest and admit that most of what I got, they gave to me in the form of negligence and incompetence.

The truth is, if Tommy wanted to own a Costa Rica monger site, he'd buy this one. It's not only a true monger site, it's a better site in most categories. It's forum software is ten times better and easier to manage, it has a robust content management system, and the members sometimes talk about girls.

Tommy and I still have an imaginary beef over my friend Rick (not his real name). Rather, Tommy has a beef, and I have a sense of humor about it. My pal Rick, who suffers from terminal boredom, likes to go on forums and pick fights with dumb people to watch their reactions. He went on CRT and created usernames like Vegan bob, Randy444, and countless others, and would pick fights with the most unstable of the group, causing endless drama and chaos. When Rick would send me links to the shit he'd started, I'd laugh hysterically. Mostly because of how he was spending his time riling up the retards. Around the same time, paypal cut both of our sites off for being adult sites. They froze funds for half a year for me, and I'd guess they did the same to Tommy. I've heard Tommy blames me for this, mostly because he's an idiot who confuses his friends for his enemies, and vice versa.

To me, I don't understand how a small group of people can efficiently ruin a 'business' that people are dying to participate in. A testament to the Trailer Park Illuminati's ability to turn fortune to failure in the least amount of time imaginable.

I will freely admit that the CRT site has some excellent and voluminous archives that aided me tremendously on my first trip to CR. I think i have only posted once or twice on that board. I find the bickering and pettiness distracting. Yes it can be entertaining at times but if I see one more diatribe pro or con "Cien for a Del Ray or Jaco Girl" I am going to have a stroke.

Is CRT really for sale? Or does Tommy just want to buy it back? I always thought that his decision to sell and his luck/ability at finding a buyer when he did was the best timing in the history of "selling message boards." Why in the world does he want to buy it back, I wonder?

CRT has changed greatly from what it was 2 or 3 years ago, that's true. But... It's nothing that couldn't be fixed. The site already has a huge member base, although only a few of those members actually post. Tommy always distanced himself from the rhetoric on the board, which is one of the main reasons why it did so well under his ownership. However, CRT's day was done when he sold it. That day is not coming back, unless he plans to completely overhaul and re-invent the site. Even then, I'm skeptical.

CRT eventually succumbed to the same thing that all message boards succumb to: A senior, vocal minority whose main goal is to insult and ridicule all newcomers, and anyone whose opinion differs from theirs. That you cannot fix, unless you kick them all out. Even that doesn't always work. Every board eventually runs its course. It's just like owning the hottest bar in New York City. No matter what you do, you can't be the hottest bar in New York City for 20 years. You have to fold, and reappear as an entirely new entity.

Jonesie is right that Ticaland would make a much better choice for a site to purchase. CRT has "jumped the shark." Anyone who purchases CRT will have to unmake it, re-invent it, and then re-brand it... Else they'll just be stuck with the same resident know-it-all people who seem to spend every waking hour pissing off and insulting everyone else on the board.

Ticaland has few members that post, and Jonesie spends a lot of time in Colombia and has other business ventures. Ticaland could use a guy who is willing to spend more time on the site, and who spends the vast majority of his time in Costa Rica. Ticaland is still pretty much still a blank slate. When I'm not too busy on other projects, I basically "blog" on Ticaland, just so there will be some fresh content. The benefit is that all of the infrastructure and even a little income are already there. It's a turnkey operation that is just waiting to be properly exploited.